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Soft-Rock Doc Series, ‘Sometimes When We Touch,’ Slated by Paramount+ for January (EXCLUSIVE)

By Chris Willman

Chris Willman

Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic

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streaming soft rock documentary paramount+

Everybody’s a softie — well, almost everyone — when it comes to a fondness for the not-so-hard-hitting heyday of “soft rock,” which has a strong overlap with what’s come to be known and celebrated as “yacht rock.” Paramount+ is counting on a nation of viewers having a hankering for the soft stuff with its upcoming streaming premiere of a three-part documentary, “Sometimes When We Touch,” slated for the U.S. and Canada on Jan. 3.

Popular on Variety

Among the artists whose hits will come up in the series are — besides the aforementioned Daryl Hall and John Oates — Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Christopher Cross, Air Supply, Ambrosia, the Carpenters, the Captain & Tennille and Lionel Richie . While some music fans might feel it’s a stretch to consider the last few acts “rock” at all, tell it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which just inducted Richie last month.

Among those interviewed for the series, not all of them soft-rockers themselves by trade: Sheryl Crow, Stewart Copeland of the Police, Run DMC’s Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, Susanna Hoffs, LA Reid, Richard Marx, Robert “Kool” Bell, Verdine White and, as seen in the trailer (above), Variety ‘s Owen Gleiberman. Verified soft-rock vets showing up for discussion include Loggins, Toni Tennille, Rupert Holmes, Dan Hill, Ray Parker Jr. and Air Supply.

Van Toffler produced, Lauren Lazin executive-produced and directed, and Chuck Thompson wrote and exec-produced. Other executive producers include David Gale, Floris Bauer, Barry Barclay and Joanna Zwickel for Gunpowder & Sky; Rick Krim; and Bruce Gillmer and Vanessa Whitewolf for MTV Entertainment Studios. Jennifer Yandrisevits was senior director of production.

The doc will stream in the U.K., Australia and Latin America on Jan. 4, the day after it debuts in the States. Viewers in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and France will get their crack at it April 4.

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Sometimes When We Touch documentary on Paramount+

Paramount+ To Launch ‘Sometimes When We Touch’ Documentary Exploring The History of “Yacht Rock”

Paramount+ has announced that SOMETIMES WHEN WE TOUCH , a three-part documentary series exploring the history of soft rock music , will premiere exclusively on the service in the U.S. and Canada on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023 and will also stream in the U.K., Latin America and Australia ( Wednesday, Jan. 4 ), Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and France ( Tuesday, April 4 ).

SOMETIMES WHEN WE TOUCH is the untold story of soft rock, whose artists dominated pop music worldwide in the ‘70s, only to crash and burn in the ‘80s, eventually experiencing one of the most unlikely comebacks in music history. The series presents all-new interviews with some of soft rock’s biggest legends, like Air Supply (“All Out of Love”), Dan Hill (“Sometimes When We Touch”), Kenny Loggins (“This Is It”), Ray Parker Jr. (“A Woman Needs Love”), Rupert Holmes (“Escape: The Piña Colada Song”) and Toni Tennille (“Love Will Keep Us Together”). Through candid and poignant stories, these stars lead a celebration of the underappreciated music that continues to have a lasting impact on American culture.

The connective stories that propel the series are augmented by exclusive interviews with dozens of classic and contemporary musicians like Daryl “DMC” McDaniels, John Ondrasik, LA Reid, Richard Marx, Robert “Kool” Bell, Sheryl Crow, Stewart Copeland, Susanna Hoffs and Verdine White; rarely seen archival interview and performance footage; host commentary that embraces the impact of soft rock while acknowledging the cringey excesses that sometimes led it astray; and a review of its continuing power over a new generation found everywhere from hip hop samples and radio remakes to superhero soundtracks and TikTok posts.

The series is produced by MTV Entertainment Studios in partnership with Gunpowder & Sky. Produced by Van Toffler and executive produced by David Gale, Floris Bauer, Barry Barclay and Joanna Zwickel for Gunpowder & Sky, co-executive produced by Rick Krim, executive produced and written by Chuck Thompson and executive produced and directed by Lauren Lazin. Bruce Gillmer and Vanessa Whitewolf executive produce for MTV Entertainment Studios, with Jennifer Yandrisevits serving as Senior Director of Production.

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Paramount+ Goes Behind the Music In a Surprisingly Dark Soft Rock Doc

Captain and Tennille try to survive their variety show (Photo: Paramount+)

The next time you’re at a drugstore, pay attention to the music being piped through the aisles. Those pleasant background tunes may not sound menacing, but sometimes, they’ve got histories that would make Ozzy Osbourne blush. That’s one of the fascinating revelations in Sometimes When We Touch , Paramount+’s new docuseries about the rise, fall, and rebirth of soft rock.

To be clear, the show is not revolutionizing the music doc genre. (It debuted on January 3, but some premieres can pass even TV critics by.) Charting the careers of sentimental ’70s and ‘80s acts like Air Supply, Christopher Cross, and Ray Parker Jr., it follows the standard Behind the Music formula: Old-timers talk about their glory days and how they were certain they’d last forever. They discuss the hard times, after some new style pushed them off the charts, and they wrap it up with a hopeful look to the future. But as familiar as this might be, the series has a few ingredients that give the recipe a kick.

First is the willingness to go dark. Several musicians and music journalists discuss how soft rock’s eventual collapse was rooted in a hyper-masculine rejection of men who made vulnerable records. There are damning montages of old movies and newspaper articles all but threatening violence against Barry Manilow, Michael McDonald, and their ilk. While many stories have been told about how the disco backlash was rooted in racism, homophobia, and misogyny, it’s enlightening to consider that similar prejudices hounded The Doobie Brothers, too.

At times, though, the trouble came from inside the house. In the show’s frankest interview, Toni Tennille, half of the duo Captain & Tennille, discusses her loveless marriage with Daryl “The Captain” Dragon. While they were gaining millions of fans with bouncy tunes like “Love Will Keep Us Together,” she was going home to a miserable private life, utterly devoted to a man who was incapable of showing her affection. It’s hard to hear their hit “The Way I Want to Touch You” in the same way after she says she wrote it as a plea for her husband to be nice to her. Similarly, Canadian balladeer Dan Hill alters the context of his hit “Sometimes When We Touch” — yes, the one that gives the series its name — when he describes the slightly obsessive relationship that inspired it.

But despite these dark underbellies, many of these songs remain incredibly satisfying. The show’s other standout trait is its eagerness to ask why. Instead of ironically shrugging at the recent boom in “yacht rock” revival tours, director and executive producer Lauren Lazin digs into what makes this music work for a new generation. This includes both a sharp analysis of our need for gentle art and a sophisticated segment on the melodic structures and production techniques in songs like Elton John’s “Daniel” or Toto’s “Africa.” This is where industry interviewees like producer L.A. Reid and Bangles frontwoman Susannah Hoffs prove invaluable: They have the professional expertise to explain what the average listener might only be able to sense.

Best of all, Sometimes When We Touch drops all this knowledge with a generous sense of fun. The narration is lighthearted but not snarky. The soundtrack respects the breadth of the late ’70s and early ’80s by playing classics alongside forgotten hits like Stephen Bishop’s “On and On.” And all the talking heads, whether they were making this music or grew up listening to it, acknowledge the ludicrous moments while celebrating the transcendent ones. That’s just the balance the series needs to capture an era that produced both cheesy variety shows and timeless ballads in record numbers.

Sometimes When We Touch is now streaming on Paramount+. Join the discussion about the show in our forums .

Mark Blankenship has been writing about arts and culture for twenty years, with bylines in The New York Times, Variety, Vulture, Fortune, and many others. You can hear him on the pop music podcast Mark and Sarah Talk About Songs .

TOPICS: Sometimes When We Touch , Paramount+ , Captain & Tennille , Lauren Lazin , Toni Tennille

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Soft Rock Documentary Sometimes When We Touch Coming to Paramount+

By Allison Hussey

A new three-part documentary about soft rock is coming to Paramount+, Variety reports. It’s titled Sometimes When We Touch and it hits the streaming platform on Tuesday, January 3. Watch the teaser trailer for it below; scroll down for the documentary’s poster.

Subtitled The Reign, Ruin and Resurrection of Soft Rock , the documentary digs into the history of the genre, which boomed in commercial popularity from the seventies through the early eighties. Sometimes When We Touch also features commentary from Kenny Loggins, L.A. Reid, Sheryl Crow, Susanna Hoffs, and more.

MTV Entertainment Studios co-produced Sometimes When We Touch with the studio Gunpowder & Sky. It focuses on performers like Hall & Oates, Loggins, Lionel Richie, Air Supply, and Michael McDonald, among others. Richie, who had solo hits with soft rock cuts like “Hello” and “Truly,” was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year.

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Soft rock gets the spotlight in Paramount+ doc ‘Sometimes When We Touch’

"Sometimes When We Touch," a three-part documentary series exploring the history of soft rock music, is showing on Paramount+. Viacom International

Credit: PARAMOUNT+

Soft rock is a subgenre that by its very name is easy to make fun of. It’s goopy. It’s sappy. It’s full of pianos and emotional longing.

Now it’s gotten the documentary treatment on Paramount+. The three-part series is named after the 1977 Dan Hill ballad “Sometimes When We Touch” and includes the subtitle “The reign, the ruin and the resurrection of soft rock.”

The fast-paced, well-crafted doc covers the genre’s big names like the Carpenters, Christopher Cross, Air Supply and Michael McDonald but also gives some lesser known acts room to breath such as Pablo Cruise, Ambrosia, Rupert Holmes and, of course, Dan Hill himself. It chronicles the rise of soft rock in the 1970s into the early 1980s, the mockery and collapse of the genre during the MTV era and the comeback of the sound in recent years.

In this March 17, 1971 file photo, Richard and Karen Carpenter of The Carpenters pose with their Grammy during the 13th annual 1970 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. The brother-sister duo was named best new artist of the year, 1970, and also won as the best contemporary duo or group vocalists for "Close to You." In a new collection “Carpenters with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,” Richard Carpenter gave new string arrangements to many of the duo’s classic recordings from the late 1960s through the early 1980s, including “Close to You” and “Superstar." (AP Photo, File)

“Michael McDonald was winning Grammys and selling out arenas, then five years later, he couldn’t get booked in coffee shops,” said Van Toffler, CEO of the documentary’s production company Gunpowder & Sky, which is a partner with MTV Entertainment Studios on the series. Toffler was (ironically) a former MTV president. “Now the Doobie Brothers are back to selling out arenas again. You couldn’t have created a better movie arc than this.”

The series provides historical context to the soft rock revolution, noting that after the tumultuous 1960s, “America was in need of relief and soft rock was there like a sonic colonic,” the documentary’s narrator Pete Sepenuk said early in the first episode.

The first episode breaks down how the keyboard dominates the soft rock sound vs. the guitar for harder rock. The sound is even described as “The Doobie bounce,” which has an R&B inflection, exemplified by the 1979 song “What a Fool Believes.”

“It was interesting to me hearing from studio experts and musicians how much technology instigated and fueled this movement,” Toffler said.

The mini-profiles of key acts provide no shortage of intriguing tidbits. Toni Tennille of Captain & Tennille (”Love Will Keep Us Together”) spent years in a loveless marriage with the emotionally distant “Captain” Daryl Dragon. “I couldn’t make him fall in love with me,” she said in the doc. “I hoped he would.”

In this Feb. 28, 1976 file photo, Daryl Dragon and his wife Toni Tennille, of the Captain & Tennille, hold the Grammy award they won for record of the year for "Love Will Keep Us Together," at the Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. (AP Photo, FIle)

Dan Hill was just 19 when he wrote “Sometimes When We Touch” to try to woo an older woman. Her response when he played it to her? “You’re way too intense.” And she moved in with a football player, he said.

Ray Parker Jr., long before he became a famous solo artist, toured with Stevie Wonder before writing a treacly hit “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” for Leo Sayer (but received no writing credit.)

There are random stats. The Carpenters outsold Jimi Hendrix, CCR, the Sex Pistols and Lynyrd Skynyrd combined in record sales. And Firefall’s debut album in 1976 went gold faster than any album in the history of Atlantic Records, beating Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Led Zeppelin.

The series also features musicians in other genres expressing their love for soft rock, including Stewart Copeland of The Police, Daryl “DMC” McDaniels of Run DMC, Nancy Wilson of Heart, Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles and Sheryl Crow.

And there are a few Atlanta faces across the three episodes including the city’s own Yacht Rock Revue, Air Supply’s Russell Hitchcock — who lives in Marietta — and Big Boi of OutKast talking about hip-hop sampling of soft rock songs.

October 23, 2021 - Atlanta - Atlanta band the Yacht Rock Revue, lead singer Nick Niespodziani with keyboardist Mark Bencuya perform at the Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain in Atlanta, Saturday, October 23, 2021. The popular cover band relies primarily on the music of Rupert Holmes, Toto, and Kenny Loggins for its success. (Akili-Casundria Ramsess for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Credit: Akili-Casundria Ramsess

The second episode focuses on how uncool soft rock became when MTV arrived. “It became survival of the photogenic,” said the decidedly unphotogenic Holmes of “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” fame. The third episode is all about how the genre is now beloved in many circles, how popular yacht rock has become and how current artists such as Dua Lipa, Harry Styles and The Weeknd funnel soft rock in their current music.

The comeback in the 1990s and 2000s also came in part due to rap acts. Toffler said so many hip-hop acts such as Drake and Warren G grew up with parents playing soft-rock songs, so sampling those tunes was natural. “This music wasn’t maligned,” he said. “They were just great melodic songs by the best musicians of that time. Daryl DMC loves Sarah McLachlan.”

The doc wasn’t able to get every big soft rock act available to talk to them. They missed relatively press-shy McDonald and prickly Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates. But they did get Kenny Loggins, Verdine White of Earth, Wind & Fire and Robert “Kool” Bell of Kool & the Gang.

Members of the band Kool & the Gang, from left, Larry Marano, Ronald Bell and Robert Bell arrive on the red carpet for the Goldene Kamera (Golden Camera) media awards in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2014. (AP Photo/Axel Schmidt)

“My biggest regret is we didn’t get Richard Carpenter,” Toffler said. “ He had just written a book . He was done talking about it. The Carpenters were such a rich part of that genre. That to me was a missed opportunity.”

Toffler credits director Lauren Lazin for enabling the series to flow so well. Lazin did dozens of MTV “rockumentaries” for him. “We have a 20-30 year history of doing things with each other,” he said. “That made it really comfortable and easy.”

The bottom line, he said, is the best of soft-rock music still holds up decades later.

“I’m just amazed how good these songs are and how good the playing is,” Toffler said. “It has a lasting impact. I hope people not just enjoy the music they hear in this documentary but all the good stories around the music.”

ON TELEVISION

“Sometimes When We Touch,” available on Paramount+

About the Author

Rodney Ho writes about entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution including TV, radio, film, comedy and all things in between. A native New Yorker, he has covered education at The Virginian-Pilot, small business for The Wall Street Journal and a host of beats at the AJC over 20-plus years. He loves tennis, pop culture & seeing live events.

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Paramount+ sets soft-rock docuseries “Sometimes When We Touch”

The much-maligned, now (somewhat) reclaimed musical genre of soft rock — inescapably known as “yacht rock,” thanks to the popular web series that parodied/paid homage to it — will receive the deep-dive docuseries treatment in Sometimes When We Touch , a three-parter rolling out internationally on Paramount+ beginning on January 3.

One of the most commercially successful genres of American pop music from the mid-’70s to the mid-’80s, soft rock harnessed the breezy, sun-kissed vibe of West Coast leisure and married it to super-sleek studio production. Exemplified by such artists as Christopher Cross, Hall & Oates, Michael McDonald, Toto and Kenny Loggins, the genre became a veritable soundtrack for the lifestyle of the nascent yuppie class as the Reaganite 1980s dawned.

Derided for decades by music critics, soft rock has received something of a re-evaluation in the past decade, with initially ironic appreciation beginning to shade over into the genuine article. The top-flight musicianship and studio sheen that characterized the genre has made it a natural source for hip-hop sampling and social media appropriation, introducing some of soft rock’s biggest stars to a new generation.

Named for the hit song by signature soft rocker Dan Hill, Sometimes When We Touch chronicles the rise and fall and rise again of the genre through all-new interviews with such figures as Hill, Loggins, Air Supply and Rupert Holmes, along with commentary from other musicians and appreciators, including Sheryl Crow, Stewart Copeland of The Police, Daryl “DMC” McDaniels and Robert “Kool” Bell of Kool & the Gang.

The series is produced by MTV Entertainment Studios in partnership with Gunpowder & Sky. Director Lauren Lazin and writer Chuck Thompson also share executive producer credits along with David Gale, Floris Bauer, Barry Barclay and Joanna Zwickel for Gunpowder & Sky, and Bruce Gillmer and Vanessa Whitewolf for MTV Entertainment Studios. Gunpowder & Sky CEO Van Toffler is the producer, and the co-executive producer is Rick Krim. Jennifer Yandrisevits is senior director of production for Paramount.

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documentary

New Docu-Series ‘Sometimes When We Touch’ to Detail Soft Rock Revolution

by Alli Patton December 13, 2022, 1:51 pm

There are few who rock softer than Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Hall & Oates, the Carpenters, Captain & Tennille, or Lionel Richie. A new three-part docu-series, titled Sometimes When We Touch: The Reign, Ruin and Resurrection of Soft Rock , will explore the impact those acts and more had on the life, death, and rebirth of the genre.

Videos by American Songwriter

Titled after the melodramatic Dan Hill classic of the same name, Sometimes When We Touch will detail “one of the most unlikely comebacks in music history,” painting soft-rock’s rehabilitation in recent years, and why it fell out of favor in the first place.

“You can trash, bash and malign soft rock as much as you want, but I bet you know every song in the Hall & Oates catalog,” Gunpowder & Sky CEO Van Toffler said in a statement via Variety . “Personally, I’m happy that the kids are finally learning about the virtues of the Carpenters and Michael McDonald via their sampling in current hip-hop.”

Through archival interviews, concert footage, and contemporary commentary, the series “embraces the impact of soft rock while acknowledging the cringey excesses that sometimes led it astray.” Those interviewed for the series include non-softies like Sheryl Crow, Stewart Copeland of the Police, Run DMC’s Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, record executive L.A. Reid, and Richard Marx. While soft rock veterans, including Loggins, Hill, Toni Tennille, and Rupert Holmes will add their take, as well.

Sometimes When We Touch comes after the aforementioned Richie was inducted into the 2022 class of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for his enduring soft rock hits. Richie joined fellow softies McDonald and Hall & Oates in the coveted hall.

A product of MTV Entertainment Studios in partnership with Gunpowder & Sky, the series will premiere on Paramount+ on January 3.

Watch the official trailer for Sometimes When We Touch , below.

Photo by Michael Putland / Getty Images

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‘Sometimes When We Touch’ Explains How Passé Soft Rock Became Hipster Yacht Rock

Stream it or skip it: 'sometimes when we touch' on paramount+, a doc that observes the rise and legacy of the '70s soft rock sound.

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'Sometimes When We Touch' Chronicles the Soft Rock Revolution

I’m a child of the ’70s and ’80s, and I have an affinity for the culture of those decades. And in the midst of my eclectic music tastes, I have a special place in my heart for what the cultural tastemakers call “soft rock.”

Soft rock has been the object of ridicule as well as a guilty pleasure for generations, and a new documentary series tells the story of this amazing style of music. Paramount+ is streaming the documentary series Sometimes When We Touch , and it’s a must-watch for any fan of soft rock.

The first of the three-part series recounts the “Rise” of soft rock. Music began to mellow out in the early ’70s following both the tumult and artistic experimentation of the ’60s. This new strain of rock relied on acoustic guitars and electric piano and melded elements of folk, R&B, country, and even smooth jazz into a blend that perfectly bridged the gap between pop and rock.

The musicians from that era explain that the mellow sound of soft rock wasn’t a breeze to create. “It was hard to write the songs; it was hard to record the songs,” says David Pack of Ambrosia. “Everything about soft rock was hard.”

Guitarist (and defense consultant) Jeff “Skunk” Baxter details how soft rock guitar players built their playing around the vocalists, while Cory Lerios of Pablo Cruise explains the appeal of the Fender Rhodes electric piano. And Pack discusses the smooth vocals and thick harmonies that characterize the genre.

Related: Christine McVie: An Appreciation

Part 1 takes a special look at the Carpenters, the Captain & Tennille, and Ray Parker, Jr. The career trajectories that each of those acts took mirror the rise of the genre as a whole. From Karen Carpenter’s underrated drumming and the Carpenters’ lush multi-tracked harmonies to the Captain & Tenille’s loveless marriage to Parker’s child-prodigy beginnings, the career stories are full of surprises.

The diversity (in a good way) of soft rock, with its variation in musical style, helped add to its appeal. The narrator refers to soft rock as “the sum of all of America’s musical parts.”

And soft rock found a way to even bring jazz into the mix. These artists “found a way to marry this highbrow music with commerciality,” says L.A. Reid.

Just like the middle part of any trilogy, Part 2 tells the tale of the darkest days of soft rock. “Ruin” shows how the rise of punk, new wave, and rap and the birth of MTV helped kill most of the mellow sounds of soft rock, while a new machismo in the ’80s eviscerated the sensitivity that defined the soft rock era.

The growth of music videos meant that, in the words of Rupert Holmes (who admitted to never having had a piña colada in his life), “Music became about survival of the photogenic.” Soft rock became something to mock — even as the decade had its share of hit ballads.

“Critics treated [soft rock] like some kind of disease,” intones the narrator at one point. Both the hip and the snobbish hated those mellow sounds. What was mainstream wasn’t cool, and what was edgy was never “soft.”

In the ’80s and early ’90s, mellow music transformed from soft rock to adult contemporary, an over-produced, schmaltzy sound that bore no resemblance to rock.

Related: Remembering Olivia Newton-John: Singer, Actress, and My Boyhood Crush

Part three looks at the “Resurrection” of soft rock, beginning with how the advent of sampling in early rap records led to the resurgence of soft rock. The controversy that surrounded sampling brought these artists back into the spotlight — initially by complaining about sampling and suing for payment and credit. But one song, Warren G and Nate Dogg’s “Regulate,” which sampled Michael McDonald’s “I Keep Forgettin’,” helped hip-hop stars realize that the smooth sounds of soft rock made the perfect bed on which to lay rhymes.

Label executives saw the value in the blending of hip-hop and mellow rock as well. “I always felt like the outsider with hip-hop, and all of a sudden I was invited to the party because music that I knew was now being sampled into hip-hop,” Reid admits in the documentary.

Another element of pop culture brought soft rock into the spotlight. Many movies and TV shows in the ’90s relied on the mellow sounds of the ’70s and early ’80s for a sense of irony. Making fun of soft rock led to genuine respect for the sounds and sensitivity of the genre. The “we’re all in this together” mentality after 9/11 helped endear people to the enduring power of soft rock as well.

The emergence of the “Yacht Rock” movement in the 21st century helped added to the demand for a soft rock resurgence. The web comedy series Yacht Rock led to a slew of tribute bands, which created a monstrous phenomenon. Irony and comedy led to a true appreciation for good music.

“I think that yacht rock became such a phenomenon because everyone you knew, we were supposed to make fun of this music, but then when you listen to it — ‘No way, what’s happening? I’m kind of enjoying this,'” says NPR’s Ann Powers.

“This is like a movement,” says Peter Beckett of the band Player (you know, “ Baby Come Back “) of the “Yacht Rock” revival.

The “hipper-than-thou” music critics, in the words of legendary journalist Ben Fong-Torres, made fun of the middle-of-the-road stuff, and you can still see the disdain dripping from some of the cultural critics like Matt Pinfield and some people I’ve never heard of named John DeVore and Anthony Fantano throughout the series.

As John Ondrasik from Five for Fighting puts it, “I sympathize with some of these great writers who achieved the pinnacle of their careers just to be ridiculed by some of these folks in the press.”

But the artists who show up prominently in Sometimes When We Touch but fall outside the purview of soft rock — like Sheryl Crow, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, Big Boi, and Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles (who looks so amazing these days) — love and appreciate the music for the art that it is.

“You can say, ‘That’s a piece of crap. I hate that bubble gum music,’ but guess what: you sing it in the car by yourself,” says Les Garland, co-founder of MTV and VH1.

“It’s f***in’ just good f***in’ music,” says McDaniels in Part 1. “Stop f***in’ labeling it!”

You said it, DMC. I might not have phrased it quite that way, but he hit the nail on the head. If you’re a fan of the music, you’ll love Sometimes When We Touch .

Chris Queen is an Editor and Columnist at PJ Media, where he has written for over 10 years. He has also written for The Resurgent, NewsReal Blog, and Celebrations Magazine.

Chris is a fan of anything involving his beloved Georgia Bulldogs and is a Disney aficionado. He is the author of the book Neon Crosses .

You can subscribe to his Substack page to read his musings on faith, Southern culture, and more. Find him on Twitter , Truth Social , and Gettr . For media inquiries, please contact [email protected] .

Soft rock shines in ‘Sometimes When We Touch’

Soft rock is a subgenre that by its very name is easy to make fun of. It’s goopy. It’s sappy. It’s full of pianos and emotional longing.

The fast-paced, well-crafted doc covers the genre’s big names like the Carpenters, Christopher Cross, Air Supply and Michael McDonald but also gives some lesser known acts room to breathe, such as Pablo Cruise, Ambrosia, Rupert Holmes and, of course, Dan Hill himself. It chronicles the rise of soft rock in the 1970s into the early 1980s, the mockery and collapse of the genre during the MTV era and the comeback of the sound in recent years.

The first episode breaks down how the keyboard dominates the soft rock sound versus the guitar for harder rock. The sound is even described as “The Doobie bounce,” which has an R&B inflection, exemplified by the 1979 song “What a Fool Believes.”

“It was interesting to me hearing from studio experts and musicians how much technology instigated and fueled this movement,” Toffler said.

The mini-profiles of key acts provide no shortage of intriguing tidbits. Toni Tennille of Captain & Tennille (“Love Will Keep Us Together”) spent years in a loveless marriage with the emotionally distant “Captain” Daryl Dragon. “I couldn’t make him fall in love with me,” she said in the doc. “I hoped he would.”

Ray Parker Jr., long before he became a famous solo artist, toured with Stevie Wonder before writing a treacly hit “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” for Leo Sayer (but received no writing credit).

The comeback in the 1990s and 2000s also came in part due to rap acts. Toffler said so many hip-hop acts such as Drake and Warren G grew up with parents playing soft-rock songs that sampling those tunes was natural. “This music wasn’t maligned,” he said. “They were just great melodic songs by the best musicians of that time. Darryl DMC loves Sarah McLachlan.”

“My biggest regret is we didn’t get Richard Carpenter,” Toffler said. “He had just written a book. He was done talking about it. The Carpenters were such a rich part of that genre. That to me was a missed opportunity.”

The bottom line, he said, is the best of soft-rock music still holds up decades later.

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Soft Rock Gets Close-Up in 'Sometimes When We Touch' on Paramount Plus

Air Supply! Richard Marx! Rupert Holmes!

Docuseries Sometimes When We Touch , detailing the history of soft rock music in three episodes, premieres on Paramount Plus January 3. Air Supply, Rupert Holmes and Kenny Loggins are among the easy-listening rock purveyors who are interviewed.

“ Sometimes When We Touch is the untold story of soft rock, whose artists dominated pop music worldwide in the ‘70s, only to crash and burn in the ‘80s, eventually experiencing one of the most unlikely comebacks in music history,” according to Paramount Plus.

Ray Parker Jr., Toni Tennille, Richard Marx and Dan Hill are also interviewed, along with musicians behind not so soft songs, such as Daryl “DMC” McDaniels, Sheryl Crow and Stewart Copeland.

Dan Hill sang the cheesy ‘70s hit that gave the docuseries its title.

Sometimes When We Touch is produced by MTV Entertainment Studios in partnership with Gunpowder & Sky. It is produced by Van Toffler and executive produced by David Gale, Floris Bauer, Barry Barclay and Joanna Zwickel for Gunpowder & Sky , co-executive produced by Rick Krim, executive produced and written by Chuck Thompson and executive produced and directed by Lauren Lazin. Bruce Gillmer and Vanessa Whitewolf executive produce for MTV Entertainment Studios. ■

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Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C / Multichannel News , covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot , about what’s new in television, and Series Business , a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times , The Philadelphia Inquirer , Playboy and New York magazine.

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Five Brand Takeaways from Sometimes When We Touch

This blog was originally written for and appeared on the Coleman Insights website. Visit them here.

I love love songs. Let me control the music when we’re together, and it’s likely the ride will be with the Carpenters, Barry Manilow, Dan Fogelberg, Bread, and Ambrosia. Younger Steve might have been embarrassed to admit this. Today’s Steve owns it and will show you all the kitschy music he sings along with in the car. Which brings me to a call I had with the show I work with at WINK-FM in Fort Myers, FL.

Logan, the morning co-host, was sharing that he remained in the good graces of his wife because he had just taken her to another Air Supply show. They both adore the group. This led to a discussion of Soft Rock, which Logan knows I enjoy. Logan recommended I watch “Sometimes When We Touch”, a documentary about the history of Soft Rock and how it morphed into another of my musical passions, Yacht Rock (of which many know I am highly opinionated), on Paramount+. I watched it that night.

“Sometimes When We Touch” is shown in three parts: the reign, ruin, and resurrection of Soft Rock. It was completely engaging, fun, and a great escape.

Here’s what rang true as I smiled and sang throughout all three parts and how they pertain to radio:

BE THE CANDY, NOT THE ENTRÉE. The entrée is serious. Candy is fun. It’s lighthearted. It’s a guilty diversion. “Sometimes When We Touch” is total candy with zero “nutritional value.” It’s not designed to make you think too hard. It’s meant to be a diversion. When I saw the Eagles recently on their MeHotel California tour, Don Henley tells the audience they’ll give us a three- hour vacation from the stresses of the real world with hit after hit we can sing along with. That’s exactly what they did. No one left in a bad mood. Be the candy, not the entrée. If you’re a music station, unless you’re compelled to cover something that dictates being serious, handle everything else with humor, mischievousness, curiosity, and fun. Be the candy. That’s the X factor of radio.
DON’T ABANDON YOUR POSITION. Everything is cyclical. Something that may go out of fashion comes back. It inevitably happens to every brand. You may be the shiny new object one day and then competitors try and take your position. One of the best pieces of advice I got from Jon Coleman in the early years of my company was to know my position in the marketplace and to not bend wit the winds. Abandon your position and it may never come back to you. Turns out soft rock had more staying power than anyone expected, but the brand was always true to itself.
AUTHENTICITY IS POWERFUL. Speaking of being true to oneself, there’s the enduring power of authenticity. Dan Hill tells the story in the show of how he wrote “Sometimes When We Touch”. He was dating an older woman who rejected him, and he wrote her this immensely honest love song to express his feelings. He told her his truth through his song. She said he was too sensitive. It became by far his biggest hit. After it topped the charts she wanted him back, but it was too late. Always, always, always tell the audience the truth. Great brands and talent do, and the audience knows if you aren’t.
PROTECT YOUR IP. I knew we’d eventually get to Yacht Rock and it happened. That was the greatest point of curiosity for me. Who came up with the term? How? And why the hell didn’t they trademark it so they could become zillionaires?? J.D. Ryzer and Hunter Stair created the term “Yacht Rock” with their YouTube series of the same name. They’d surely be rich…had they trademarked it. But they didn’t, which is heartbreakingly detailed in the series. Thinking about how to protect your brand is so important. We come up with ideas that turn into morning show features or community service programs, for example. One of my processes at that point is asking, “Have we secured a service mark for it? Do we have the YouTube channel? Maybe bought the website domain?” Because if not, someone could steal our intellectual property. If you develop something unique to your brand, own it not only in execution, but own it legally.
EARN YOUR LISTENERS’ TRUST. I posted about “Sometimes When We Touch” on Facebook because I am passionate about the music and its evolution. I wanted to share my find with my people. Jay Nachlis from Coleman and other friends in my network watched it because they trust my opinion, much like I trusted Logan’s. And then they tell their friends, who tell their friends. Isn’t that how you find new streaming TV shows? Aren’t you more apt to trust a friend’s recommendation than an ad? In radio, we worry so much about engaging with listeners tactically – but if they trust you, you have them for so much more than a promotion. Talent builds trust with the audience so when they’re endorsing a product, talking about the radio station, or doing content in their unique way, listeners who trust them will endorse you to their network of friends (aka “future listeners”). Talent = Trust. Work hard on that part of your brand.

Great brands make you feel something. Tap into “Sometimes When We Touch” for some Soft Rock inspiration.

Now, who’s ready to set sail with Captain Steve? The SS Reynolds leaves the dock promptly at 7:00pm. On board entertainment is Christopher Cross and Seals and Crofts! Night two? Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins!

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Home » Five Brand Lessons from Sometimes When We Touch

Five Brand Lessons from Sometimes When We Touch

Talent coach Steve Reynolds from The Reynolds Group has an unnaturally high affinity for soft rock favorites. Which makes him the natural choice to be the guest author of today’s Tuesdays With Coleman blog.

Logan, the morning co-host, was sharing that he remained in the good graces of his wife because he had just taken her to another Air Supply show. They both adore the group. This led to a discussion of Soft Rock, which Logan knows I enjoy. Logan recommended I watch “Sometimes When We Touch” , a documentary about the history of Soft Rock and how it morphed into another of my musical passions, Yacht Rock (of which many know I am highly opinionated), on Paramount+. I watched it that night.

“Sometimes When We Touch” is shown in three parts: the reign, ruin, and resurrection of Soft Rock. It was completely engaging, fun, and a great escape.

Here’s what rang true as I smiled and sang throughout all three parts and how they pertain to radio:

BE THE CANDY, NOT THE ENTRÉE . The entrée is serious. Candy is fun. It’s lighthearted. It’s a guilty diversion. “Sometimes When We Touch” is total candy with zero “nutritional value.” It’s not designed to make you think too hard. It’s meant to be a diversion. When I saw the Eagles recently on their Hotel California tour, Don Henley told the audience they’d give us a three-hour vacation from the stresses of the real world with hit after hit we could sing along with. That’s exactly what they did. No one left in a bad mood. Be the candy, not the entrée. If you’re a music station, unless you’re compelled to cover something that dictates being serious, handle everything else with humor, mischievousness, curiosity, and fun. Be the candy. That’s the X factor for radio.
DON’T ABANDON YOUR POSITION . Everything is cyclical. Something that may go out of fashion comes back. It inevitably happens to every brand. You may be the shiny new object one day and then competitors try and take your position. One of the greatest pieces of advice I got from Jon Coleman in the early years of my company was to know my position in the marketplace and to not bend with the winds. Abandon your position and it may never come back to you. Turns out Soft Rock had more staying power than anyone expected, but the brand was always true to itself.
AUTHENTICITY IS POWERFUL . Speaking of being true to oneself, there’s the enduring power of authenticity. Dan Hill tells the story in the show of how he wrote “Sometimes When We Touch”. He was dating an older woman who rejected him, and he wrote her this immensely honest love song to express his feelings. He told her his truth through his song. She said he was too sensitive. It became by far his biggest hit. After it topped the charts she wanted him back, but it was too late. Always, always, always tell the audience the truth. Great brands and talent do, and the audience knows if you aren’t.
PROTECT YOUR IP . I knew we’d eventually get to Yacht Rock and it happened. That was the greatest point of curiosity for me. Who came up with the term? How? And why the hell didn’t they trademark it so they could become zillionaires?? J.D. Ryzer and Hunter Stair created the term “Yacht Rock” with their YouTube series of the same name . They’d surely be rich…had they trademarked it. But they didn’t, which is heartbreakingly detailed in the series. Thinking about how to protect your brand is so important. We come up with ideas that turn into morning show features or community service programs, for example. One of my processes at that point is asking, “Have we secured a service mark for it? Do we have the YouTube channel? Maybe bought the website domain?” Because if not, someone could steal our intellectual property. If you develop something unique to your brand, own it not only in execution, but own it legally.
EARN YOUR LISTENERS’ TRUST . I posted about “Sometimes When We Touch” on Facebook because I am passionate about the music and its evolution. I wanted to share my find with my people. Jay Nachlis from Coleman and other friends in my network watched it because they trust my opinion, much like I trusted Logan’s. And then they tell their friends, who tell their friends. Isn’t that how you find new streaming TV shows? Aren’t you more apt to trust a friend’s recommendation than an ad? In radio, we worry so much about engaging with listeners tactically. But if they trust you, you have them for so much more than a promotion. Talent builds trust with the audience so when they’re endorsing a product, talking about the radio station, or doing content in their unique way, listeners who trust them will endorse you to their network of friends (aka “future listeners”). Talent = Trust. Work hard on that part of your brand.

Great brands make you feel something. Tap into “Sometimes When We Touch” for some Soft Rock inspiration.

Now, who’s ready to set sail with Captain Steve? The SS Reynolds leaves the dock promptly at 7:00pm. On board entertainment is Christopher Cross and Seals and Crofts! Tomorrow night? Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins!

One thought on “Five Brand Lessons from Sometimes When We Touch”

You are KILLING me, Steve;-) Softly. When I got the KMXZ Tucson gig in 1993 I was telling all my peeps how I could NOT see me doing a Softie since I had always made fun of the format both ON and OFF the air! It took me several months to realize how much it offers. And, it’s NOT that easy to blend the music scheduling. When Rob Sisco and I put our version of HOT/AC on KMGI 107.7 in Seattle (1989) we used the positioner: “No Disco, No Manilow. No Raps, No Naps. Just a Better Mix of Music on I-1077”

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